[Project] Cataclysm 2nd

[Norsehound]

Ok then,

The National Novel Writing Month is a sort of 'competition of the self' during the Month of November in which participants are challenged to write a novel of 50,000 words or less within that month. I won last year, finishing "Horizon of the Sunrise" over 50,000 the day before the deadline.

This year I was sort of stumped about what kind of plot I would follow, since I don't have much desire to keep working on "Horizon" (long story). With two Homeworld stories under construction currently, one would imagine I'd just one use of these for the contest...

...but the rules state the story can only be written in the month of November. Only character sketches and plot notes are permitted.

So either I could wrap up the first "book" of Taiidan Civil War to work on the next phase of the story on Taiidan itself...or...

I could re-write Cataclysm.

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I've been kicking around the idea of how I would portray Cataclysm ever since I found I had a disagreement with Barking Dog's changes to the original homeworld story. After playing the GOTY edition of the original Homeworld Cataclysm seemed....disappointing. I had notions and ideas from playing Homeworld 1 that, to my dismay, were quashed as far as cataclysm was concerned.

So I figured I would adopt a re-make of the Cataclysm story as my "plot idea" for this upcoming NaNo challenge. As Chrome pointed out in the Children of Kadesh thread, perhaps it would help others better understand my disappointments with the Cataclysm story and perhaps better clarify my position on the matter.

In any event, it's another homeworld story I'll be writing. Also, there is art:

Kuun-Lan redesign concepts

Acolyte redesign

The purpose of this thread to be a place for me to put Concept art, story sketches, plot ideas, and other things for critique and commentary while I gear up to write it. There's already been favorable responses to the re-design of the Kuun-Lan, and Chrome encouraged me to make my own thread about this project specifically, so here it is.



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Right then. Some basics.

This version of Cataclysm was written to assume the Taiidan were the exiles. This isn't necessarily because I WISH them to be the true exiles (as one could argue the Taiidan are infinitely cooler...and retain their identity...because they were the Empire). Instead, it was introduced firstly as a contrast, and secondly to usher in a redesign of the Kuun-Lan and Somtaaw fleet. I'm not alone in thinking the designs do not suit the "poor Mining Kiith" mentality that the Somtaaw assume to be under. For the Re-Design, I see Riess' drawings as inspiration when doing drawings for the "new fleet".

Other elements of the backstory have been changed for this vision. For instance, the Bentusi are not going to be cutting any deals with any individual Kiith. There's no reason Kiith Somtaaw should receive any special treatment or technology that was not given to the Kushan people overall, and so do not have the "infinite drives" the Bentusi gave to them. Instead, Somtaaw found their answers for drives and technology through trade with the Vaygr in the east.

The Kushan Empire was not that badly fragmented after the Emperor fell, but is in transitory between an Empire and Republic. This is perhaps a holdover of how I saw the Kushan people, since I didn't think they were as hostile or militant as the Taiidani were in the 'canon' universe. Power struggles weren't as steep among the Kushan people as they were among the Taiidani, mostly because of the presence of several very prominent figures in Kushan society (Elson being one of them).

The universe, up until the return of the Exiles, was a stagnant place locked in a power struggle. When the "new Kids" showed up on the block, some empires began to plan on manipulating the "new Kids' and exploiting the Taiidani naiivity to their advantage. It was also an excuse for several wars to break out over differences in the Taiidan's new territory.

Kiith Somtaaw, under the Taiidan persona, gained independence through organizing a space-mining labor strike in addition to petitioning the Daiimid. This made them more or less on bad terms with some of the prevailing Kiithid (Naabal in particular), but this direct show of action is common in Taiidani society.

Through effective manufacturing practices, Somtaaw has at least three Explorer-class mining vessels in operation. This is due to the highly modular construction process involving the Explorers...mostly because every individual component is about as big as a carrier. Since the Mothership would have churned out carriers for the other Kiith, churning out Explorer components wouldn't be a problem.

Somtaaw construction methods in this universe is also highly 'modular', though not 'separable.' To Elaborate, I've noticed among Taiidani frigates the use of common components (the engine block especially) For Somtaaw, to fabricate larger ships, they took this idea and ran with it- using several common components among larger ships. To build these bigger ships, the mothership fabricates large components and assembles them in deep space with the aid of workers (or something similar). Getting the Somtaaw's "most powerful ship" is done in this way. The Light Cruiser is an assembly of several blocks put together and finished in zero G... than hanger module for Kuun-Lan is only big enough for frigates.

Anyway, that's just some thinking on this plot idea thing. More to come.

[typhoonoftempest]

I like the idea of making a Taiidan version of the Kuun-Lan

so much so that it caused me to get up late at night to get some ideas down (I'll be getting a pic for all of the sketching down soon).

One critic that I have is that it's resemblance to the Taiidani shipping is...

..lacking.

the Kuun-Lan had a number of resemblances to the remainder of the Kushan ships, including the fact that the forward section of the ship looked kinda like a banana, and that it was vertical. It even had attena (attiena? grr) at about the top third of the ship.

now, you do have a very nice design going. That's a certainty. It just doesn't look very Taiidan. For that matter, it looks like a very large cargo barge with a docking bay.

[Norsehound]

Care to suggest ideas to make it look more "Taiidan"?

[Fuel?]

It's functional, miner-ish but lacks 'shipcraft'. Each Taiidani ship looks.
I've learnt during re-modelling, that Kushani ships are nothing more than a rounded box with some guns strapped to them.
Taiidan craft are representative.
Done some research. Waiting for final design and I'll try replacing old Kuun-Lan with the Taiidani version.
More Taiidan?
More exotic shapes, more smoothness.

[Norsehound]

Smoothness? Looking at the Taiidan lineup, Smoothness is only found in strike craft.

Uberjumper had this to say about Taiidan and Kushan design in the art thread:

...but the design of each was that the Taiidan were supposed to look like an industrial, practical design, and that the Kushan ships were to look sleeker and more efficient, like they were designed solely to operate in space (which is where they were designed). The Taiidan ships seemed to be designed with a feel that they should work in atmosphere. That's what I got from JAK anyways when talking to him (and watching him draw a ship! Got to play a very early version of the game, basically moving a ship around a HUGE megalith)

Since he's former Relic, and talking about JAK (original artist for the Taiidan), I'll be following this mentality when it comes to making a Taiidan-Somtaaw fleet.

[Fuel?]

Well, I'm not arguing about that one.
I've always seen the Taiidan as empire that was dealing with ship construction long enough to turn it into an art.

[Norsehound]

Funny, I always assumed that of the Kushan "empire" if the Taiidani were exiles.

Compare the research modules. The Taiidan one looks more like a contemporary (us, on Earth, present day) space station over the "hubs".

[Sparki]

sexy idea there, Norsehound. I hope I can brainstrom a bit beyond this useless post on helping you out with suggestions.

[Norsehound]

One of the underwhelming elements of Cataclysm was "the Sneaker"- AKA the Worker. Mostly it works i guess... big pod-like thing being a tank for holding RUs. However, I couldn't get around the fact that it's shaped like a shoe... and has little motes for a main drive.

I found the orignal harvesters much more impressive... and I liked the utility of the Taiidan design. When I first looked at it, It conveyed "Commercial Freight" to me... maybe because of the stripes on the tank:



The idea here is that Somtaaw, who retain rights to the Harvester craft, decided to make it bigger, better, and able to do more things. FInding they couldn't increase the demands of the simple harvester, they split up the tasks between the Truck and it's freight.

One of my favorite Games, Outpost 2, has a number of working vehicles that all share the same Cab but with different payloads (ConVec, Truck, Evac Vehicle). The Taiidan harvester looks like it pretty much demands the same thing, since it's easy to seperate the pod from the rest of the vehicle.

...though I find I'm still wrestling with the cab design :\ I tried drawing inspiration from a HW2 concept, the dropped Vaygr transport frigate, and things from HW1.

Basically it's an all-purpose, incredibly robust, truck vehicle that can do salvage work, hauling a harvester pod, perform repairs (I need to put claws in there somehow... not sure I want to give this guy the magic 'green beam' despite it being in Canon Cata...) and even haul around a platform for servicing fighter craft. It's the end all utility vehicle (Well, one of them) the Somtaaw employ.

One thing I'd like to practice in sketching the new Somtaaw fleet is a sense of design lineage. The current Destroyer doesn't look like a hastily modified heavy tug. So I'll begin with the harvesters, work my way over to the Resource Controller, and from the Resource controller start making mutations into the various Frigate designs.

The Acolyte isn't directly influenced by this design process, which is why I nailed ideas down earlier.

[Fuel?]

Well, I'm a big fan of banana-makers.
Yeah, the Taiidani research vessels look like our current research stations.
On the other side, that design isn't really good.
First - the rotating disc of Kushan research vessel (I'm talking about whole, not the segments. I think the segments were introduced only for game mechanics purpose), with proper rotation can maintain an artificial gravity. Irregular Taiidani one can't.
Disc doesn't have a visible center. Taiidan one has a center-ship. By firing an accurate torpedo at the middle one, enemy could easily jam communication between the other segments of flying lab, or even make it fall apart. Kushan Disc - if one ship is destroy, you can walk around.
I think that's a bit out of place (It should be swapped), but - Taiidan empire had more experience in combat ship designs, and developed network of planet-based reasearch facilities didn't require a flying lab-ship (which, not having a hyperspace drive would slow down every fleet)
Kushan had no experience in making combat units, though some in making utility/civilian ones. And they were in need of one.

Okay, Harvester. Yeah, that was my feeling too. Like a combine harvester. The design that has 'meep' written near to it is nice.

[Sparki]

One of my favorite Games, Outpost 2, has a number of working vehicles that all share the same Cab but with different payloads

bit off topix:
You played Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri too?

[Norsehound]

I did play Alpha Centauri... but quickly discovered that detail-laden games like that I didn't enjoy much.



Some of you may have noticed that the mission modules for the Kuun-Lan don't have the same cross-section between the front and back portrayals. I've been flip-flopping on what shape to make them, whether they should taper going out (Teal) or coming back in towards the spine. (Orange)

The shape of the command modules has also changed, between a diamond-shaped hexegon of equal distance (white), or biased towards the spine (red).

I was wondering what others felt would be a better-looking arrangement?

Also a blurb on Kuun-Lan's modules:

-Kuun-Lan is divided into several modules, color and letter-coded for simplicity. In the middle of all this is the connecting spine, the ‘Highway’ since it uses travel cars to traverse between modules. Every module is completely self-contained, and can be closed off in a crisis.

Front facing modules (3) (White)
Command, Communications, and Operations pods. These three pods at the front facing of the vehicle are where the bridge, communications antenna, and rudimentary hanger are positioned. In front of all of these is the massive reverse-thrust package, which slows the craft.

Hanger Module (H) (Green)
The hanger module is provided for the construction of larger vessels, up to frigate size. Construction of larger capital craft takes place by welding together frigate components to form the larger ship, which is finished with exterior construction vehicles.

Habitat Module (B) (Blue)
The habitat module is the city-section of the Kuun-Lan. It’s interior is similar to the Centraal Baheer mentioned above. Though space is at a premium, Kuun-Lan’s population has implemented space-conserving ways. Small gardens are spaced intermittently through the module's maze-like interior.

Refinery Module (R) (Yellow)
Designed for resource processing and refinement of materials. Connections run from this module to the hanger module by exterior piping. There are two slots for resourcers to dock.

Greenhouse (G) (Purple)
The greenhouse is a rotating section between the forward and aft modules. It spins to provide gravity for the plants there, since the Taiidan have the belief that things don’t grow well in the artificial gravity of the modules.

Research Pod (E) (Teal)
The Research pod was specially fitted to only a select few of the Explorers. Kuun-Lan was one of them, and as an experimental component it has the most safeguards. It can be instantly and completely sealed from the rest of the ship if triggered by the occupants. It also comes with a self-destruction capability.

Storage module (S)(Orange)
Designed to store anything from resources collected to oxygen and other precious gasses. It is triple-armored to prevent any breaches.

Emergency Module (X) (Red)
The Emergency Power module stores backup reactors in the event the main reactor fails. The Emergency Module was also designed to detach and connect to other modules to serve as a back-up and survival component if dire needs demanded it.

Drive Module (D) (Brown)
The Kuun-Lan’s massive drive block. It too, was assembled in modular components and constructed… but this by far was the longest set of components to build from the original mothership. The drives are more powerful than the ones built into the original mothership, as the blocks themselves were based off of captured Kushan technologies (and Turanic, to some extent). The Drive module itself is three modules together, with a fourth serving as a cruising motor.

Each of the three drive modules has it’s own hyperspace core, tripling the range of Kuun-Lan over other vessels. This means while it doesn’t go as far as the far-jumper (Mothership’s core), it can go significantly further than most other ships and can out-range most pursuers.

[Stingra]

Hmm, Norse, the way you described your new collectors, I could see something similar to the Taiidan collector, but the cabin/engine module could detach and release the ore hold onto a asteroid, leaving it there.

It would be automated, thus allowing the cabin/engine section to go pick up another ore hold and deploy it. Once the hold is full, it would send out a signal for pick-up and the collector could simply attach to it with cables/normal brace locking and take it off to the controller.

Much more efficient for a mining Kiith, you get more harvesters for your buck and instead of being dedicated to a single rock the fewer collectors needed could cycle between ore holds. The only downside is that if your collectors and controller get destroyed the enemy would have easy access to loaded RU buckets.

[AdmiralTheon804]

Out of curiosity, what's your NaNoWriMo author name? I was also planning on doing a HW fanfic of some kind for this year's run.

Love the idea. Don't have much to add other than what the others have said. I'm also of the opinion that the new Kuun-Lan design needs to be fleshed out a bit more to fit the Taiidan theme. The Taiidan were proficient in making their designs have life. Even the Somtaaw achieved this in their designs, at least past the level of creativity that the Kushan did. Their modules each had a shape to them that fit their purpose, the most extreme example of this being the Hangar Module. In that aspect, the Somtaaw shared an element with the Taiidan in their ship design. They shaped their ships around the theme of whatever that unit's purpose was.
On a side note, the top-right module design (orange and red) seems best to me.

*2cents*

[Norsehound]

The way I envisioned the new collectors was that there would be a piloted truck that hauled various mission modules around. It wouldn't be automated... the Kushan race is the one of the two that specializes in automated technology (drone frigate, which eventually lead to Leeches, Swarmers, et all).

The challenge I have in designing it is making it seem different from the Taiidan resource controller (on which it is directly based), yet have room and options for the various utilities I'd ask of it. There's also the challenge in keeping the engines balanced... I thought about placing them under the craft (like how they are on the Hiigaran HW2 collector), but then I realized that it wouldn't be able to propel the ship's combined mass evenly (like the Taiidan harvester can...mostly)

I want to give it claw arms and manipulators, ala HW2. I argue that this method of harvesting was much more efficient than the 'harvesting beams' in HW1 and Cata... and given that Somtaaw is a mining Kiith, they would want to harvest the materials directly through digging rather than risk disrupting them through 'harvesting magic'. It's why they switched in HW2, I thought.

The various mission modules on the Kuun-Lan have their own characteristics. The Hanger Module obviously has a maw, the Refinery module piping and ducts for the harvesters. The Emergency Module would have boosters visible, since in an emergency it can de-couple from the spine and connect directly to another mission module, forming an ad-hoc space vehicle for emergency purposes (It comes with a small hyperspace module also).

If this Kuun-Lan were to be placed in Cataclysm's current story... the Medical module would have been the one 'sacrificed' to the Beast. It would have been detached and special, smaller 'lab' modules would be placed there instead. I have different ideas of how to handle the beast, if I include it at all, but It wouldn't be as...'drastic' as it appeared in Cata.

And on the pod arrangements- one thing I hesitate about is allow the command modules to overlap over the mission ones. That's why I hesitate to adopt Red/orange, even though I like the modules tapering in.